Retro Housewife Maternity Shoot

I've been holding on to these photos for months now. My sister and I actually took these maternity shots on New Year's Eve. Wow, has it really been that long? Time flies when you're taking care of a little human.

This shoot gave me an excuse to get all dolled up. Much needed, because at nine months pregnant, you don't often feel glamorous. So I painted my nails, threw on some rouge, and wore heels for the first time in six months.

An apron is the perfect accessory for maternity photos. It cinches at the waist and accentuates the baby bump.

Rustic Maternity Photo Shoot

We took these photos in late December, when the weather was absolutely gorgeous here in Northern California. Only a few weeks before, we had a few inches of snow covering the ground. Despite the fact that we threw this photo shoot together extremely last minute, I absolutely adore the photos!

Pretty much the only thing I had planned ahead of time was this dress I found the day before (50% off!). An hour before sunset, we were still running around the house. I was looking for shoes and throwing makeup on, Ryan was shaving and picking out a shirt, my sister was checking to see if the chalkboard paint had dried, and we were all throwing props in a bag.

We had about 40 minutes before the sun went down. We headed up to our barn and just started shooting. My sister doesn't claim to be a photographer, but she stepped into the role with ease. She was standing on wine barrels, moving like a ninja to get different angles, props hanging out of her pockets. She was a rock star.

I sure do love chalkboard paint!

Sneak Peek: Rustic Maternity Shoot

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. My sister claims to not know what she's doing, but they turned out amazing! We did both a rustic shoot up by our barn and a retro housewife shoot. For now, here's a preview of our rustic maternity photos.

Our Vintage Country Wedding

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in what seems like forever. I got caught up in wedding projects, then came the wedding, then after the wedding seemed like "phew, I need a break!" Now I'm back. And I want to share some photos of the wedding with you all.

Ryan and I paid for the wedding ourselves. Neither of us make a ton of money, but we were creative, included as much DIY as possible, and had help from tons of amazing friends and family. 

We had bought our dream home in January (a screaming deal!). Twenty-two beautiful acres in Northern California. After looking around at outrageously expensive wedding venues, we thought "Why not just do it at our place?" Instead of paying several thousand dollars to rent someone else's barn, we could put that money into building a barn of our very own. 

So we did. A high school friend of Ryan's has a family-owned construction company. He came up to take a look at our place. He asked if we were sure we didn't want to just do a metal barn - it would be cheaper. We told him that we were set on a pole barn with a tin roof. Just like they would have built 50 years ago. 

In true procrastinator's style, barn construction began in the second week of March, the wedding date was the second week of April. Cutting it close!

The flowers turned out beautiful! I actually have a friend that teaches a floral arrangement class at a local charter school. She offered to have her students do all of our flower arrangements for free. We just paid for the flowers wholesale through one of her contacts. It was a life saver!

We kept the attire comfy casual. The guys wore pressed wranglers and vests. The girls wore sundresses and cowboy boots. Pretty low budget. I'll break down the cost in another post.

We filled mason jars with true homemade Apple Pie Moonshine for favors. The real deal. If you've never had it, it's ridiculously good! Most people broke into their favors early, which made for a lot more people shaking it on the dance floor.

'Stache Bash Photo Booth Props

It was little man's first birthday! And we threw him a little gentleman's 'stache bash. I love a baby in a bow tie.

A big hit at the party was the photo booth I put together. And by "booth" I mean wrinkly sheet I hung in the corner. Don't get me wrong. We tried to iron it before the party, but it somehow re-wrinkled by the time I hung it up. 

The mustache props were so easy put together. And the photo booth was so much fun for all of the adults while the toddlers played in the ball pit and pushed dump trucks around.

This is one of my favorite pics from the 'stache bash photo booth. Louise and Angie crack me up!

Notice the wrinkly sheet I mentioned earlier.

Let's go through the easy step-by-step to make your own photo booth props.

Baby Announcement Gone Right?

Our friends Katie and Clayton are having their second baby and it's a boy! When Katie asked if I could help them take some pictures to announce the new baby, I said "Of course! No problem." So we all headed to the park to take some fun photos with their daughter, Rilyn. 

Everything started off peachy. Parents were smiling. Rilyn was smiling and rocking her cute fishtail braid (which, by the way, I still don't know how to do). We were trying different angles and shots. Then all of a sudden, Rilyn decided she was not having it. She was not going to strike another pose. The camera was her enemy. Tears started flowing. It was as if someone had told her she could never watch Bubble Guppies again. 

Well folks, sometimes you've got to go with the flow. So we ended up just setting the sign next to her as the tears continued to flow. I just kept snapping pictures. And you know what? I love them! I think they're hilarious. And so did Katie and Clayton.

So next time a photo shoot doesn't go as planned, have a sense of humor about it. You never know, they might turn out even better than you had envisioned.

Brag Books from Paper Lunch Sacks

My mom saw a little brag book in a local store made out of brown paper bags. She asked if I could make her one. Well...I love a challenge. After tinkering around in my craft room for awhile, I came up with these little brag books, using brown lunch sacks from my pantry.

These brag books are just what you'd think. They're mini scrapbooks to show off the little ones in your life.  They can easily fit in your purse and they're a definite upgrade from wallet photos.

The open ends of the lunch sacks become pockets for extra photos. So as time goes by you can always tuck more recent photos inside.

Tractor Baby Photo Shoot

I've been in Washington this past week visiting the fam. And I am now more convinced than ever that my nephew is the most gorgeous kid on the planet. I call him "little man" and he can make me laugh and smile like no other. With my sister in charge of wardrobe and staging and I behind the lens, we've been snapping photos of him all week.

On Memorial Day, my sister had the brilliant idea to set him in the bucket of my uncle's backhoe. So while the ribs and BBQ chicken were finishing up on the grill, we snuck off and snapped a few photos.

Butte 52: Week 4 - Stubby-Legged Furry Friends

One of my favorite things about living in this area: the wide variety of animals I come across. For Week Four of Project Butte 52, I want to share a couple of photos that I think will brighten your day (or at least make you giggle).

I just can't get enough of these miniature donkeys. They happen to live on the same street as some friends of ours. They make me giggle every time I pass by. I don't know what it is, but I just love animals with stubby legs.

I call her Bangs.

I'm going to take a wild guess that Bangs is the gal and big ears is the fella. Do miniature donkeys mate for life? If they had babies, I would totally want one! Then my mini doxie would have a mini donkey to play with. 

This stubby little guy lives on our friend Ryann's pony ranch.

Butte 52: Week 3 - Caper Acres

Caper Acres is the sort of park that kids love and makes adults wish they were still kids.

It sits in lower Bidwell Park, in Chico. The entrance to the park is a castle drawbridge. Pretty cool, huh? But watch your head, aimed towards kids, the entrance has a clearance of only 5'8". 

My friend Karla brought her outrageously adorable little ones: Donna and Jake. If Karla had a super power, it would be making gorgeous babies. I feel a little cuter just holding one of 'em.

{Free} Mustache Bookmark Printables

I recently got Photoshop and I've been trying to learn how to work its magic. Inspired by these Valentines from Plum Adorable, I decided to make mustache bookmarks for my little sister's birthday. I started with photos of my baby nephew in Photoshop and then ran with it. It was worth it for the sheer amusement; I laughed out loud so many times (Ryan gave me the "you're weird" eyebrow lift). My nephew is just too cute, especially with a Mario Brothers' mustache.

I made the bookmarks to accompany the first two books of The Hunger Games trilogy in her birthday package. If you haven't yet, you should must read these books! They're pretty addicting.

To start, I used my sister's instagram photos of the baby, but any photo cropped down to a square will work. Then I googled "free mustache clip art." Here's a 'stache that I used. I used Photoshop to add the mustaches to the photos. If you don't have Photoshop, I'm pretty sure you can do the same thing with Pixlr for free!

I then came up with mustache-related sayings. Only one is actually related to reading...oh well! After printing the bookmarks off, I cut 'em out and glued 'em to cardstock in a contrasting color.